This specification relates to clustering of geographic entities.
Advertisers are often interested in the effects that viewing their advertisements have on subject behavior. For example, does viewing an advertisement make a subject more likely to purchase the advertiser's goods online or from a physical (“bricks and mortar”) retail store? One way of measuring the effect of viewing an advertisement is through a controlled experiment, in which a random proper subset of subjects (the treatment group) are exposed to an advertising campaign, and the remaining subset of subjects (the control group) are not exposed to the advertising campaign.
Various techniques can be used to divide subjects into control and treatment groups. Some techniques cluster subjects according to geography, i.e., where the subjects live. For example, some experiments cluster subjects according to pre-defined designated market areas (DMAs) and then designate some of the DMAs as the treatment group and some of the DMAs as the control group.
Different techniques for clustering subjects are more effective in different geographic areas, and for different experiments. However, it can be difficult to objectively evaluate a particular set of clusters resulting from a particular clustering algorithm.